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Desperate Housewives -- Addendum Two

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The new Motley Fool stock screener is found in the "CAPS" section of their Website, at least for the time being. It is still being developed but works quite well. Once totally out of Beta status will it remain free? Let's hope so; however it is useful enough that the Fool may decide to charge for it.

Of course their software features many screening criteria based on CAPS ratings.

Under "CAPS Rating" you can choose up to 3 different dates of CAPS ratings (e.g. "4 to 5 stars on 2008-3-15" and "2 to 3 stars on 2007-11-1"), select a date, and choose Rated between: All Ratings 1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars and All Ratings 1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars.

Under "CAPS Picks" it lets you choose Min. and Max for:
Active Picks
Outperform Picks
Underperform Picks
All-Star Picks
All-Star Outperform Picks
All Star Underperform Picks
Wall Street Picks
Wall Street Outperforms
Wall Street Underperforms

You do not have to choose any CAPS rating criteria if you want to rely solely on your own choices. The screener also gives you extensive price and fundamentals criteria. I should note that although the database includes Microcaps, few are available for CAPS ratings; therefore if smaller companies are your focus you need to skip the above CAPS criteria.

Under Company Information the screener lets you choose Sector, Industry and Market Cap.

Under Price Data Min Max it lets you choose Min. and Max for:
Current Price
% Above 12 Month Low
% Below 12 Month High
4 Week Price Change %
13 Week Price Change %
26 Week Price Change %
52 Week Price Change %
3 Month Avg. Daily Volume
Price-to-Earnings (TTM)
Price-to-Sales (TTM)
Price-to-Book (TTM)

Under Risk Data Min Max it lets you choose Min. and Max for:
Beta (3 year)
LT Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Current Ratio
% Insider Ownership
% Institutional Ownership
Current Month Short Interest

Under Revenue & Earnings Data it lets you choose Min. and Max for:
Current Dividend Yield %
Revenue (MRQ)
Cash Per Share
Earnings Per Share
Dividends Per Share
Sales Per Share
EPS Growth Rate (last 3 Yrs)
Rev. Growth Rate (last 3 Yrs)
Gross Margin
Return on Equity (TTM)

As for the results, it gives you both a Key Stats View and a Screener Criteria view. Moreover, it lets you download the results to a spreadsheet.

At the moment, the only big drawback to this screener is the fact that it is easy to inadvertently choose criteria which eliminate all of the stocks in the database. You don't discover this fact until you click the "Search Now" button. This is a common problem with screeners and one which, hopefully, will be solved by the time Motley Fool takes this software out of Beta.